Who provides assistance to journalists in Ukraine and how? Facts & figures

155 editorial offices and journalists improved skills and received assistance worth UAH 6 million through NGO Internews Ukraine programmes, according to the company's 2015 Annual Report.

Contributing to development of efficient and successful media, NGO Internews-Ukraine has implemented 35 projects in 2015. It initiated 66 journalist investigations which exposed corruption abuses worth UAH 1,5 billion, a sum equal to total budget of all hospitals in Kyiv.

5 538 representatives of Ukrainian media participated in the NGO′s events in 32 Ukrainian cities. 26 international donors and 28 partners provided their support in implementation of projects and events.

In 2015 Internews Ukraine has proposed and implemented a number of innovative ideas. For example, the company introduced a crypto party, a new type of digital communication tool. This is an informal meeting raising awareness of encoding and encryption technologies to avoid risks of private correspondence being intercepted and read by outside viewers.

The First Digital Security School in Ukraine has been another innovative idea. This is a joint project of Internews Ukraine and eQualit.ie (Canada). As only 14% of all Ukrainian media are protected from DDoS attacks, the initiative brought an important value added to Ukrainian media field helping media better protect themselves.

During its 19-year history, NGO Internews Ukraine has developed numerous websites, mobile applications, and various technological tools. In 2015 the organization launched an online game on local elections ElectUA. Within this game, each player had an opportunity to become a candidate for member of local councils and run his own campaign with all possible obstacles, compromises and collisions.

The company has also implemented the first ever online policy analysis training course in Ukraine. Through distant learning tools, its students acquired professional knowledge and skills and had an opportunity to learn expert policy analysis methods and practices.

Following Russian illegal annexation of Crimea and military aggression in Donbas, the East and the South of Ukraine became among the most vulnerable regions in 2015. NGO’s "Internews Ukraine" special attention was to help journalists from these areas and resolve the problems of displaced persons. In particular, IDP journalists from the occupied territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions were awarded scholarships with the total budget of UAH 1,85 million, financed by the International Renaissance Foundation. Journalists who suffered from Crimean events benefitted from technical assistance worth about UAH 4 million, with support of the International Solidarity Foundation. In total, in 2015 the media received financial and technical assistance of up to UAH 6 million through Internews Ukraine's programmes.

Since 1996, NGO Internews Ukraine always worked in favor of the journalist and media community. In 2015, the organization began to expand its target audience. Now, the cooperation started with two new target groups –media workers of religious communities and LGBT community media activists.

In addition to traditional training, workshops and roundtables, in 2015 Internews Ukraine produced 5 monitoring studies, published 4 books, created 11 multimedia products, and outlined development strategies for six regional editions.

Background information

Internews Ukraine is one of the leading media NGOs, working in Ukrainian media and communication market since 1996. The mission of the organization consists in promoting European values in Ukraine through development of successful media. The organization empowers independent and pluralistic media in Ukraine, improves journalism standards and local media legislation and assists the development of full-fledged democracy and civil society in the country. It also facilitates journalism networking and communication support, and helps development of new media and social journalism.